Courtenay, British Columbia
Courtenay is 76% privately owned land with no major industry left on the roll at all, and the most consequential pieces of ground in it are held by three bodies the City names in its own tax-exemption schedule: a watershed society that bought the old Field Sawmill at the river mouth, the Island Corridor Foundation that holds the rail line, and the Nature Trust of BC — while the mall that anchors the Comox Valley has no publicly stated owner.
7 buildings · 4 with an owner established · 14 sources · 5 tier A · 2 tier B · prepared 2026-10-03
British Columbia's land title register is run by the Land Title and Survey Authority and anyone may search it, but every search is a paid transaction: $11.06 for a search under section 377 of the Land Title Act on the LTSA Customer Fee Listing current at 1 April 2026. There is no bulk owner product and no price-paid file. What is unusual is the Land Owner Transparency Registry — filing obligations running from 30 November 2020 and public search live since 30 April 2021 — which names the individuals behind corporations, trusts and partnerships that own BC land; the same LTSA schedule prices a search of publicly accessible information under section 35 of the Land Owner Transparency Act at NIL. Courtenay publishes no taxpayer league table, but it publishes something almost as useful: a statutory schedule of permissive tax exemptions headed "Registered owners". That schedule is where the ownership of the river-mouth conservation land, the rail corridor and the non-market housing sites is actually stated, by the City, in an audited annual report. Commercial ownership is not published at all: the dominant shopping centre is leased by a national investment manager that does not name the owner, and establishing title would need a paid search parcel by parcel.
- bcassessment.ca — “Any commercial use of these data in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, including the use of such data for business, residential address or telephone directory services or any solicitation service is specifically prohibited except with the prior written authority of the owner of the copyright.”
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driftwood Mall 2751 Cliffe Avenue (Island Highway), Courtenay V9N 2L8 258,859 sq ft GLA |
Retail | Not established a paid title search would answer it BentallGreenOak's own leasing brochure for the property states the GLA as 258,859 sq ft, the mall CRU as 29,712 sq ft, 30 shops and services, CRU sales of $520 psf as at August 2022, and that "Driftwood Mall is the market dominant shopping centre in the Comox Valley region". The tenant directory gives Canadian Tire 107,277 sq ft, Quality Foods 46,349 sq ft, London Drugs 27,397 sq ft and Landmark Cinemas 14,660 sq ft. BentallGreenOak is named only as the leasing agent, with a named vice-president of leasing; the brochure does not state who owns the property and no other document opened does. The registered owner would cost $11.06 a title to establish. |
Not established | —A |
| Kus-kus-sum (former Field Sawmill site) West bank of the Courtenay River at the 17th Street bridge 8.3 acres |
Land | Comox Valley Project Watershed Society The City of Courtenay's 2025 Annual Report lists, under a ten-year permissive exemption bylaw and the heading "Registered owners", "Project Watershed Society - Kus-kus-sum" with $50,041 of City taxes exempted in 2025 — the largest exemption in the city. Project Watershed's own pages state the restoration creates 8.3 acres of habitat, costs approximately $8.5M to purchase and restore, and is a partnership with the K'ómoks First Nation and the City. Its site history states Interfor Corporation bought out Primex and acquired the sawmill in 2001, shut it in 2004 and put the property up for sale in 2008. No purchase price was published. |
Institution | —B |
| Island Corridor Foundation rail corridor through Courtenay The E&N / Island Rail corridor, Courtenay |
Land | Island Corridor Foundation The City of Courtenay's 2025 Annual Report lists the Island Corridor Foundation under its ten-year permissive tax exemption bylaw, among "Registered owners", with $89,749 of City property taxes exempted in 2025 — the largest single line in that bylaw and larger than any non-profit exemption in the city. The same report records, under intergovernmental relations, that City staff are participating in an Island Corridor Foundation corridor planning project led by the Comox Valley Regional District. |
Institution | —A |
| Sid Williams Theatre 442 Cliffe Avenue |
Civic | City of Courtenay The City's 2025 Annual Report states that it renewed "its five-year License to Occupy and Grant Agreement with the Sid Williams Theatre Society (SWTS), supporting the continued management and operation of this vital performing arts venue" — a licence to occupy is granted by the owner. The 500-seat theatre has served the Comox Valley since 1971; in 2025 it welcomed more than 51,500 patrons and hosted 239 bookings. The Society separately holds a permissive exemption of $26,568. |
Government | —A |
| Florence Filberg Centre and Lewis Centre 411 Anderton Avenue (Filberg); 489 Old Island Highway (Lewis) |
Civic | City of Courtenay Both appear in the City's 2025 Annual Report as City facilities under active capital planning — a Florence Filberg Centre needs assessment is in progress and a Lewis Centre needs assessment was postponed — and both host City recreation programming. City buildings carry a net book value of $18,420,828 against cost of $35,608,741 at 31 December 2025, and City land is carried at $30,539,399 of cost. |
Government | —A |
| Courtenay Airpark Courtenay waterfront, south of the 17th Street bridge |
Civic | Not established a paid title search would answer it The Courtenay Airpark Society holds the largest non-profit permissive exemption in the city at $48,232 of City property taxes in 2025, under a schedule the City heads "Registered owners". The City's own report also records invasive-plant work at the Courtenay Airpark alongside City parks and the Riverway, and a memorial bench there. Whether the land is held in fee simple by the Society, by the City or under a provincial Crown tenure is not stated by any document opened, so no owner is recorded. |
Not established | —B |
| 925 Braidwood Road shelter and supportive housing 925 Braidwood Road |
Residential | Not established a paid title search would answer it The City's 2025 Annual Report states the temporary winter shelter at 971 Cumberland Road, approved by Temporary Use Permit in October 2025, operated from fall 2025 to 15 April 2026 and "provides interim support until a new purpose-built facility opens at 925 Braidwood Road in 2027", delivered through ongoing collaboration with BC Housing. The report does not say who will hold title to 925 Braidwood Road, and this record does not guess. |
Not established | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Courtenay's roll says it is a service and retirement town and nothing else: zero major industry, zero managed forest land, $13.0M of light industry against $9.2bn of houses. Private land is 76% of the city. The whole city turned over 774 times in 2025. Figures are the 2026 provincial assessment roll (Schedule 701), the City's audited 2025 financial statements and the province's 2025 property transfer tax file. The Land Designations for Forest Management layer is a forest-management product and its own catalogue entry says it "SHOULD NOT be used for operational level analysis". Inside a built-up municipality its residual class "Forest Management Unit" swallows whatever it has not mapped — we probed it and it returned that class for roads, rail corridor, parks, hospital land, filled foreshore and the bed of the Fraser River — so it is NOT read here as Crown forest inside a town boundary. Outside the boundary, over a rural box, that class is the provincial forest land base and is read as Crown.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Courtenay has no dominant private landholder that any public record names. What the record does show is that the city and the valley around it are overwhelmingly freehold — 76% of the city's land and 74% of the surrounding 614 km2 — which is the opposite of the BC interior, and that the forest tenure which reaches the valley is a licence over Crown land, not ownership. Within that, the named holders of the strategically important ground are a watershed society, a rail foundation, a land trust and the City.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Privately held land (owner not published) Derived from our 130 m grid sample of the province's Land Designations for Forest Management layer over a 614 km2 box around Courtenay (36,312 points): 30,778.3 ha Private Parcel, 327.9 ha Woodlot Licence Schedule A, 64.2 ha "Private First Nation Title" and 5.1 ha Private Conservation Area, against 7,452.9 ha of provincial Crown land. Inside the legal city boundary private land is 2,513.9 ha, 76.2% of the dry land. The layer records the designation, never the owner's name, and is licensed "Access Only", so only the aggregate is published. |
Private company | 31,175 ha of 41,910 ha of land in the valley box, 74.4%A |
| Comox Valley Project Watershed Society The City of Courtenay names it as a registered owner with the largest single permissive exemption in the city, $50,041 in 2025. Project Watershed's own pages state the Kus-kus-sum restoration creates 8.3 acres of habitat, cost approximately $8.5M to purchase and restore, and was done with the K'ómoks First Nation and the City. The land was Interfor Corporation's until the purchase agreed in 2017; no price was published. |
Institution | 8.3 acres at the mouth of the Courtenay RiverB |
| Island Corridor Foundation Named by the City as a registered owner under its ten-year permissive exemption bylaw. The corridor is the largest single linear landholding through Courtenay. The City is participating in a corridor planning project led by the Comox Valley Regional District. |
Institution | the rail corridor through the city; $89,749 of tax exemptedA |
| The Nature Trust of British Columbia Named by the City of Courtenay as a registered owner in its 2025 permissive tax exemption schedule: Nature Trust of B.C. – Sandpiper Park at $13,397 of City taxes exempted and Nature Trust of B.C. – Arden Rd at $5,806 under the ten-year bylaw, plus Nature Trust of BC – McPhee Meadows at $1,965 under the annual non-profit schedule. |
Institution | two holdings — Sandpiper Park and Arden RoadA |
| Western Forest Products Inc. The province's tree farm licence current-view layer returns TFL 39 at 188,019.4 ha with Western Forest Products Inc. as licensee, and it is the only tree farm licence whose boundary reaches the Courtenay box. A tree farm licence is an exclusive right to harvest Crown land, not ownership of it. The province's TFL Schedule A layer — the layer that maps land a licensee actually owns — returns no features inside the Courtenay box. The licence does not make the company a Courtenay landowner. |
Public company | 188,019 ha of Crown tenure reaching the Comox Valley; freehold not established hereA |
| City of Courtenay Land at cost of $30,539,399 within total tangible capital assets of $206,743,906 net book value at 31 December 2025; additions to land in the year were $2,150,151. The land-designation sample gives 173.8 ha of municipal parcels and 166.1 ha of local and regional park inside the boundary, 10.3% of the city's dry land. |
Government | $30,539,399 of land at cost; about 340 haA |
Where property meets office
Recorded only where a public record states it — a disclosure registry, council minutes, a land-use decision. Stated as fact, with nothing inferred from it.
| Holder | Office | Holding |
|---|---|---|
| Comox Valley Housing Authority | Comox Valley Regional District Board, December 2025 | A new regional housing authority whose stated initial focus includes land acquisition The City of Courtenay's 2025 Annual Report records that in December 2025 the CVRD Board approved the formation of the Comox Valley Housing Authority, which "will initially focus on housing development partnerships, land acquisition and regional coordination", that provincial approval is required before incorporation, and that once established it will operate independently "with a board that includes elected officials and housing expertise". This is a statement of fact published by the City; nothing here suggests any private interest. A |
| City of Courtenay | City Council, 2022–2026 term | A permissive tax exemption schedule naming registered owners, adopted by bylaw Section 224 of the Community Charter requires Council to adopt permissive exemptions by bylaw and the City to publish them. Courtenay publishes the schedule under the heading "Registered owners" with the City taxes forgone against each: $369,644 of annual non-profit exemptions, $182,702 under a ten-year bylaw and $40,574 on land surrounding statutorily exempt places of worship, $592,920 in all for 2025. It is the only building-level ownership list the city publishes. A |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Courtenay is building, and the province has said so, but nobody publishes who is building. The City reports nearly 1,700 new homes completed since 2021 and a 2024 Housing Needs Report target of about 8,350 new homes by 2041 for a projected population of 42,415. Building permit applications fell from 335 in 2021 to 178 in 2025 while multi-residential rose and single-family fell. CMHC's starts series does not break out builders, there is no Canadian equivalent of the HIA Housing 100, and no source opened names a private builder in Courtenay with a unit figure — so none is named. The named housing providers below are the ones the City itself identifies as registered owners.
| Name | Type | Units / figure |
|---|---|---|
| City of Courtenay (as regulator and land owner) The City's 2025 Annual Report states "Since 2021, nearly 1,700 new homes have been completed", that the City has removed rezoning requirements for secondary suites and accessory dwelling units, reduced parking minimums for purpose-built rental and non-market housing, waived development cost charges for non-market projects and updated zoning to permit small-scale multi-unit housing on more than 60 per cent of residential properties. Its own table of applications and permits gives building permit applications of 335 (2021), 216 (2022), 238 (2023), 184 (2024) and 178 (2025). |
Government | 1,700 homes completed since 2021; 178 building permit applications in 2025A |
| M'Akola Housing Society Named by the City of Courtenay in its 2025 Annual Report under the ten-year permissive tax exemption bylaw, in a schedule headed "Registered owners" — which is a statement by the City that the Society holds registered title to the exempted land. No unit count for Courtenay is published in that report. |
Institution | $23,709 of City taxes exempted in 2025A |
| BC Housing The City's 2025 Annual Report lists "Ongoing collaboration with BC Housing on the purpose-built shelter and supportive housing project at 925 Braidwood Road" among its key housing initiatives and states the facility opens in 2027. The report does not state who will hold title. |
Government | one purpose-built shelter and supportive housing project, 925 Braidwood Road, opening 2027A |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
The business-and-other class is assessed at $1.10bn on the 2026 roll — a tenth of the city — and 47 commercial transactions completed in 2025. One enclosed centre dominates the valley's retail and its owner is not published anywhere this research could open. Below it, the identifiable commercial landlords are institutions and societies, named by the City in its own exemption schedule.
| Name | Type | Floor area / holding |
|---|---|---|
| Driftwood Mall — owner not established BentallGreenOak's leasing brochure gives the area, address, tenant list and sales figures and names only its own leasing contact. It does not state the owner. No REIT filing, assessment record or press release opened here names one. This is the single largest piece of commercial real estate in the Comox Valley and its ownership is simply not public. |
Not established | 258,859 sq ft GLAA |
| Island Corridor Foundation The largest line in the City's ten-year permissive exemption bylaw, in a schedule headed "Registered owners". The Foundation holds the former E&N rail corridor through the city. The City is participating in a corridor planning project for it led by the Comox Valley Regional District. |
Institution | $89,749 of City taxes exempted in 2025A |
| City of Courtenay The City owns the Florence Filberg Centre, the Lewis Centre, the Native Sons Hall, Simms Millennium Park, Lewis Park and the Riverway, licenses the Sid Williams Theatre to a society, and carries $30,539,399 of land and $18,420,828 of buildings at net book value within $206,743,906 of total tangible capital assets. The land-designation sample gives 173.8 ha of municipal parcels and 166.1 ha of local and regional park inside the boundary. |
Government | $30,539,399 of land at cost; about 340 ha of municipal parcels and parkA |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Who owns Driftwood Mall. BentallGreenOak publishes a leasing brochure with area, tenants and sales but no owner; the mall's own site serves a JavaScript shell. Establishing it would need a paid title search.
- Who owns the Comox Valley's other retail: Washington Park, the Cliffe Avenue highway frontage and the Crown Isle commercial land. No source opened names an owner for any of them.
- What Project Watershed paid Interfor Corporation for the Field Sawmill site. The Society states a total purchase-and-restoration cost of approximately $8.5M and that a third-party appraisal was funded by both parties, but the land price itself was not released.
- Whether the Courtenay Airpark land is held by the Courtenay Airpark Society in fee simple, by the City, or under provincial Crown tenure. The Society holds the city's largest non-profit permissive exemption, which implies a registered interest, but the schedule does not distinguish fee simple from a leasehold interest.
- Who will hold title to the purpose-built shelter and supportive housing at 925 Braidwood Road, opening 2027. The City states only that it is collaborating with BC Housing.
- Who owns the 31,175 ha of private land around Courtenay. The province's land-designation layer records the designation and never the owner. Mosaic Forest Management manages TimberWest and Island Timberlands private lands on eastern Vancouver Island, but no source opened here attributes a specific parcel near Courtenay to either company, so the attribution is not made.
- The City's ParcelMap BC parcel-level ownership split. The public WFS timed out before the City of Courtenay's parcels could be paged, so no parcel-count split by OWNER_TYPE is published.
- No open dataset names the owner of any BC parcel; BC publishes no price-paid file; and LOTR covers only land held through corporations, trusts and partnerships, not land held directly by an individual.
Sources
- Fees — LTSA Customer Fee Listing as at April 1, 2026 — Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia · openA
- About the Land Owner Transparency Registry — Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia · openA
- BC Assessment homepage, terms of use and copyright notice — BC Assessment · openA
- Local Government Statistics — Schedule 701, Assessed Values for the year 2026 — BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs · openA
- Local Government Statistics — Schedule 201, General Statistics for 2024 — BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs · openA
- Property Transfer Tax Data 2025 — municipal monthly file — BC Ministry of Finance / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- Land Designations for Forest Management (ANA_LDFM_LND_DESIG_FOR_MGMT_SP) — BC Ministry of Forests / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- Municipalities — Legally Defined Administrative Areas of BC (ABMS_MUNICIPALITIES_SP), WFS — GeoBC / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- 2025 Annual Report — City of Courtenay (audited consolidated financial statements, Schedule 1 Tangible Capital Assets, permissive tax exemptions, development statistics) — City of Courtenay · openA
- Driftwood Mall, Courtenay BC — leasing brochure (GLA, address, tenant directory) — BentallGreenOak · openA
- Kus-kus-sum Site History — Comox Valley Project Watershed Society · openA
- Kus-kus-sum — Project Watershed estuary stewardship — Comox Valley Project Watershed Society · openA
- FADM — Tree Farm Licence Current View (FADM_TFL_ALL_SP), WFS over a 614 km2 box around Courtenay — BC Ministry of Forests / BC Data Catalogue · openA
- BC Physical Address Geocoder — GeoBC / Province of British Columbia · openA